LOS ANGELES – A Bakersfield man convicted of stabbing and wounding an Asian man last year during what a jury determined was a hate crime attack was sent to prison today for 22 years.

Aaron Mark Duggan, 28, was sentenced by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo on the basis of a guilty verdict returned by a jury on June 1. Besides finding that it was a hate crime, the jury also determined the victim suffered great bodily injury and that the defendant personally used a knife.

The attack occurred on April 22, 2008, on the track of a junior high school in San Dimas. The victim, Yoo Sun, then 22, was stabbed in the back and ear. A companion who was walking with Sun was attacked, but although bruised, suffered no stab wounds.

Duggan was arrested shortly after the attack and held on a probation violation stemming from an assault conviction in San Luis Obispo County in September 2004. He was charged with the San Dimas attack on March 13, 2008, He has remained in custody on $1.12 million bond.

The defendant was charged with attempted murder. After a trial, the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of attempted voluntary manslaughter.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney George Castello of the Hate Crimes Section.

From KABC this afternoon, after leading with a reference to a recent Duarte incident, where a black family was targeted by Hispanic gang members, the story continued:

“We want a public campaign to ostracize those small groups of people that would try to draw a wedge between black and brown in this city,” said Leon Jenkins, NAACP president.Jenkins, along with other local African-American leaders, is reaching out to Latino leaders with an invitation for both communities to work together to end “brown on black” and “black on brown” attacks.

“We’re opening up a dialogue with our Hispanic brothers and sisters,” said Jenkins. “Secondly, we will file a formal complaint with the FBI, and we will put the city of L.A., the district attorney’s office, and the county sheriff’s office, that we want vigorous re-enforcement and enforcement of the law against all hate crimes.”

Leaders in both communities don’t want to focus on the tension between the groups, saying there many more blacks and Latinos who get along than those who don’t, but in a recent FBI raid, 147 gang members from a notorious Latino gang were arrested in Hawaiian Gardens. Among the allegations against them, was that they specifically targeted blacks.

Federal and local agencies were conducting a series of arrests targeting members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

A series of federal racketeering indictments was due to be unsealed later Thursday, detailing firearms, narcotics and other charges related to the attacks, Mrozek said.

Further details were not released, but Mrozek said the indictments would detail the attacks on several black victims.

The indictments mark at least the second time in less than two years that federal authorities have alleged that Latino gang members attacked black residents because of their race. Local officials have tried to downplay any racial tensions.

The From Noise to Voice blog of an Arcadia resident reports a frightening find on the street outside his home:

This morning, I found our mailbox in pieces, laying on the ground, ran over by a car during the night. My house is next to a high traffic intersection. It’s not a strange thing a car jumped the curb and ran up to the sidewalk. It has happened before…

As I was picking up the pieces, I found a note stuffed inside the mailbox…How nice, I thought to myself, the guy is nice enough to leave me his/her contact information…

Boy, was I wrong! I found the scribble be…

“JAPS GO HOME”

My message to the person who did this…

First of all, I am an American! A Chinese American, proud to be!!! Go home? Home is here!!! If you don’t like it, YOU GO HOME!!! You are a coward! You did this hiding in the dark of the night…

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